1.03Wrong paragraphs, missing sentences
Tolkien’s main division of LOTR, for plot reasons, is in six ‘books’, book 1 and 2 making up ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’, 3 and 4 ‘The Two Towers’ and 5 and 6 ‘The Return of the King’. This division becomes especially prominent in ‘The Two Towers’, where the first book deals chiefly with the storylines of Aragorn, Gimli and Legolas as well as Merry and Pippin’s adventure, and the second book with the troubles Frodo and Sam are having with Gollum on their Way to Mordor. Each of those books is divided up into nine to twelve chapters of varying length. Most of these are closed plot elements, often, especially in ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’, one segment of the company’s ongoing trip from one place to another.
On a lower level Tolkien made use of plain paragraphs as well as, when a larger pause was needed in the flow of the text, blank lines between paragraphs. Both translators, though mostly Carroux, often mix up these blank lines and miss a number of those, as is indicated in the following table.
| T | C | K | blank line missed by | T | C | K | blank line missed by | |
| 27 | 41 | 37 | Carroux | 336 | 354 | 335 | Carroux | |
| 57 | 72 | 67 | Carroux | 341 | 359 | 340 | Krege | |
| 62 | 78 | 71 | Carroux | 346 | 364 | 344 | Krege | |
| 65 | 81 | 74 | Carroux | 347 | 366 | 346 | Carroux | |
| 69 | 85 | 78 | Krege | 353 | 373 | 352 | Carroux | |
| 71 | 88 | 80 | Krege | 355 | 374 | 353 | Krege | |
| 98 | 115 | 106 | Carroux | 369 | 388 | 367 | Carroux and Krege | |
| 101 | 119 | 109 | Carroux | 394 | 414 | 390 | Carroux | |
| 131 | 149 | 139 | Krege | 406 | 427 | 401 | Krege | |
| 149 | 166 | 156 | Carroux | 427 | 448 | 421 | Carroux | |
| 168 | 186 | 175 | Carroux | 434 | 455 | 428 | Carroux | |
| 184 | 200 | 188 | Carroux | 448 | 469 | 443 | Carroux | |
| 221 | 237 | 224 | Carroux | 451 | 472 | 445 | Carroux | |
| 237 | 254 | 240 | Carroux | 470 | 491 | 464 | Carroux | |
| 274 | 290 | 275 | Carroux | 491 | 512 | 484 | Carroux | |
| 323 | 340 | 322 | Carroux | 502 | 523 | 494 | Carroux | |
| 326 | 343 | 326 | Carroux | 517 | 539 | 508 | Krege | |
| 328 | 346 | 328 | Carroux | 520 | 541 | 512 | Carroux |
Ten more of these blank lines are left out by Krege and one by Carroux, whenever they occurred on the end of a page in their respective German versions.
On page C 284 (T 267) Carroux shifts the blank line by one paragraph, on page C 406 (T 385) Carroux misses a standard paragraph without blank line and on page C 413 (T 393) Carroux makes up a blank line where Tolkien did not intend one.
I am convinced that these are not unimportant details. Krege sometimes divides a longish sentence by Tolkien up into two German ones, to improve readability and to avoid complicated grammatical constructions. This way of influencing the text is completely justified, often by plain needs of the German language. Any other such intrusion in the flow of the text on any level higher than that of the sentence cannot be justified. Tolkien divided his text like this for a reason.
I will give a single example to display the problem:
T 520‘... Yet who knows what may happen in these evil days, now that Minas Tirith no longer holds secure the passages of Anduin. We must go warily tomorrow.’
The day came like fire and smoke.
C 541»... Indes, wer weiß, was in diesen bösen Tagen geschehen mag, da Minas Tirith jetzt die Wasserstraßen des Anduin nicht mehr schützt. Wir müssen vorsichtig sein.«
Der Tag brach an wie Feuer und Rauch.
K 511f»... Aber wer weiß, was in diesen schlimmen Zeiten alles möglich ist, seit Minas Tirith den Anduin nicht mehr sichert. Morgen müssen wir auf der Hut sein.«
Der Tag kam wie Feuer und Rauch.
The blank line division, in this case clearly a temporal one, is used by Tolkien, not unlike a cut between scenes in a movie, to prepare the reader for the following scene, to move him through time into the following morning. In this example this step is followed well by Krege, but it is much smaller and weaker in Carroux’ version
Similar carelessness is encountered in a few missing sentences, highly probably merely because of reading mistakes.
T 27At ninety he was much the same as at fifty.
C 41Mit neunzig war er nicht anders als mit fünfzig.
K 37[missing sentence]
T 199There was another gate in the southern corner where the Road ran out of the village.
C 215[missing sentence]
K 203Ein zweites Tor befand sich an der Südseite, wo die Straße aus dem Ort hinausführte.
T 391‘True!’, said Aragorn, loosening his sword in its sheath. ‘But where the warg howls there also the orc prowls.’
C 411»Richtig!« sagte Aragorn und lockerte sein Schwert in der Scheide. »Aber wo der Warg heult, da lauert auch der Ork.«
K 387[missing sentences]
T 468‘... And if my designs had not gone amiss, it would have been governed by Gandalf the Grey, and then mayhap things would have gone otherwise. ...’
C 489»... Und wenn meine Absichten nicht durchkreuzt worden wären, hätte Gandalf der Graue ihn geleitet, und dann wären die Dinge vielleicht anders gelaufen. ...«
K 462»... Und wären meine Pläne nicht fehlgeschlagen, wäre vielleicht alles anders gekommen. ...«
It may be argued, that the missing sub clause in the third example was intended by Krege, but the other three missing sentences have probably been overlooked by the translators. This is especially strange in the second example, because one gate to the town of Bree is mentioned in the sentence before this one and both gates in the following one. This means that Carroux’ text does not make much sense in that bit.